With wide eyes and a rush of excitement, a group of elementary and middle school students from Eldon experienced the FIRST LASER Robotics World Championships for the first time.

Teams from all over the world gathered in St. Louis last week to compete for the championship title.

As a school district who is planning on implementing FIRST Robotics next year, Eldon wanted to familiarize students to FIRST.

Students visited with teams and were able to get perspectives from different cultures.

"From the Sweden group, I learned that it's better to have a smaller robot because it maneuvers faster. It can accomplish things easier," sixth grader Mariah Wardenburg said. "I was feeling a rush of excitement because I love engineering type of things. I think its incredible that people can build those robots who are still in middle and high school."

Teams welcomed visitors to booths where they showcased their projects and what made their team unique.

"It was really exciting. I really liked meeting all people." fifth grader Bailey Robinette said of meeting the teams from different countries.

The students from Eldon had the chance to meet up with students from Camdenton and watch Camdenton high school's team LASER 3284 compete.

Camdenton teams have mentored Eldon earlier this year and introduced the students to FIRST.

One of the main facets of FIRST is teaching good sportsmanship and the organization's core values. After only experiencing FIRST for a few hours, the students immediately noticed the refreshing atmosphere.

"You have to be very polite. There's no better team," sixth grader Hailee Vernon said.